"International Student Movement"

The Australian higher education system has taken the biggest blow over
the past decade with funding being massively cut and constant attacks
on both staff and student unions.

The government pushed through
what they called "Voluntary Student Unionism" with the help of the far
christian right party 'family first' after their own senators crossed
the floor to oppose it. They also put it through on the very last
parliamentary sitting before christmas and put a gag on any discussion
after they had been attempting to get the legislation through for the
past 10 years.

We have since changed governments but the new
government is yet to do anything but dance around the subject promising
to do something when they get around to it. Unfortunately our national
union of students is controlled by the youth wing of this new
government who are unwilling to attack the government too hard on
anything in fear of losing future job prospects within the party. They
also prefer to work behind closed doors within the party caucus rather
than building the student movement and empowering students to create
change.

We also have a system of technical colleges called
TAFE's and they have had their fees increased by around 400% in the
last 4 years. There is now talk of providing those students with
interest free loans to assist them to pay the exhorbitant fees, however
in reality it is only a precursor to raise the fees even higher.

Just a quick rundown, I'd love to hear whats going on in other countries though.